Venom's Movie Now Has Carnage, But What About Spider-Man?

Huge changes apparently are afoot in Sony’s Spider-Man galaxy, ones that likely will affect the webslinger’s cinematic adventures for years to come. As we reported earlier, Sony now plans to drop a female-centric Spider-Man story in between Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six movie (slated for November 2016) and the third The Amazing Spider-Man film (which will drop in 2018). This female-driven character film will arrive in 2017, continuing the studio’s desired trend of having a Spider-Man-type film in theaters every year, on the year. That plan includes Venom, though now he’s apparently bringing a friend.

Buried near the bottom of Deadline’s extensive piece regarding changes happening in the Spider-Man universe comes the news that the Venom movie – which still is expected to be directed by Alex Kurtzman – will now be a Venom and Carnage movie.

Hoo boy. So that can of worms has been opened now.

Let's talk a bit about what this means. In the comic books (you know, the source material for most of these movies), Venom was an offshoot of Peter Parker’s alien symbiote costume, which Spider-Man picked up during The Secret Wars. The costume – which was a sleek black design with white accents – ended up having a mind of its own, and when Peter rejected it, the symbiote latched on to an angry and jealous Eddie Brock, creating the villainous Venom.

Carnage, by extension, built off of the incredible popularity of Venom as a comic book character, attaching the symbiote to a serial killer named Cletus Kasady. Where Brock had a slight bit of a conscience, Kasady was a heartless killing machine – and Spider-Man ultimately needed Venom’s assistance to take the villain down.

Did you hear that? Spider-Man needed Venom.

Which begs a massive question that many Spidey fans are asking in the wake of today’s major announcements. Where does Spider-Man fit into all of these plans being laid out by Sony. Is Spider-Man part of Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six movie? Will Spider-Man fight alongside this female character who’ll carry a movie in 2017? And will Spidey show up in this Venom-Carnage movie that Alex Kurtzman is attached to? There are a lot of moving pieces on Sony’s Spider-Man board… but too few of them seem to include Spider-Man, as reported.

I understand that Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed based on what the studio was hoping to see, financially. But do audiences want to see a Sinister Six movie, a potential Black Cat movie, or a Venom-Carnage movie WITHOUT Web head? Or is he the gas the keeps the engine moving? I’m very excited by the possibility of seeing some of the finest characters in the Spider-Man universe make their way to the big screen. But if Spider-Man isn’t a part of these plans, what exactly is the point?